One of the biggest problems many healthcare providers face is their patients' lack of knowledge. Patients may lack knowledge on basic preventative measures, such as why they should exercise, eat right, and not smoke. Patients may also lack knowledge on conditions or diseases they do have, such as how to measure their blood glucose levels if they are diabetic. This lack of knowledge is a problem for healthcare providers because patients who do not know how to take care of themselves are ill more frequently. Thus, they tend to visit their doctors more often and also tend to incur additional costs for hospital stays or laboratory tests. This results in greater fees for the patient, his or her insurance company, and often the taxpayers.
An example of this problem is seen in some diabetes patients. Diabetic patients must regularly receive insulin shots and adhere to a specific diet in order to control their blood glucose levels. Unfortunately, some diabetic patients do not understand all the reasons why they should have regular insulin shots or why they should or should not eat certain foods. In addition, many diabetic patients are unaware of the health consequences should they deviate from their treatment plan. As a result, uninformed patients usually become sicker and require more medical treatment when compared to patients who understand all aspects of their diseases. Sicker patients require more healthcare, which is expensive and time-consuming for healthcare professionals, insurance companies, and the patients themselves.
One way to solve this problem is to increase the amount of education patients receive about their lifestyle choices and/or their diseases. When patients know what is required to stay healthy, they are less likely to become ill and require treatment. In addition, if patients understand the health problems that will result from not taking care of themselves, they will be more likely to follow their prescribed treatments.
Presently, forms of health education range from pamphlets in a doctor's office to radio announcements and television shows. Paper-based educational materials such as pamphlets are cheap and easy to both produce and distribute. Unfortunately, pamphlets or articles are limited to words and pictures and are usually quite boring, which makes it less likely that patients read them. Radio announcements and television shows are more lively and entertaining, but they indiscriminately broadcast to the general public. Accordingly, these radio announcements and television show cannot be customized to a particular patient.
Due to technological advances, patients can now be educated using CD-ROMs, the Internet, and multimedia processors. U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,263 by the present inventor discloses a modular, microprocessor-based health monitoring system. The hand-held unit has a display screen, a control button pad, interchangeable program cartridges, and sensors for monitoring a variety of healthcare data. The program cartridges include motivational and educational material related to use of the device, including step-by-step instructions. Acquired data may be transmitted to a data management unit via an interface cable, or to a clearing house via telephone lines. A program cartridge for monitoring glucose levels and a glucose sensor is disclosed for the purpose of caring for children with diabetes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,597,307 and 5,624,265 by Redford and Stern describe an educational system and apparatus aimed at children which also uses a multimedia processor. This invention comprises a remote control located in a book or other printed publication. A child reads the book while watching the display generated by the multimedia processor, and then press the buttons in the remote control book to alter what he sees.
None of these prior art education systems allow an individual to automatically access assigned educational programs remotely. These inventions described above provide general educational programs which are not tailored to the specific needs of an individual. These systems do not allow a healthcare provider or teacher to easily custom-design an educational program to be viewed by the individual. Further, none of these systems provide confirmation that the individual completed the educational program. Finally, none of these systems provide a patient or individual access to an unlimited number of educational programs.